Spatially resolved spectrophotometric SED modeling of NGC 253’s central molecular zone

Abstract

Context. Studying the interstellar medium in nearby starbursts is essential for gaining insights into the physical mechanisms driving these extreme objects, which are thought to be analogs of young, primeval, star-forming galaxies. This task is now feasible due to deep spectro-photometric data enabled by rapid advancements in ground- and space-based facilities. To fully leverage this wealth of information, extracting insights from the spectral line properties and the spectral energy distribution (SED) is imperative. Aims. This study aims to produce and analyze the physical properties of the first spatially resolved multiwavelength SED of an extragalactic source that covers six decades in frequency (from near-ultraviolet, NUV, to centimeter, cm, wavelengths) at an angular resolution of 3″, which corresponds to a linear scale of ∼51 pc at the distance of NGC 253. We focus on the central molecular zone (CMZ) of this starburst galaxy, which contains giant molecular clouds (GMCs) responsible for half of the galaxy´s star formation. Methods. We retrieved archival data from near-UV to centimeter wavelengths, covering six decades of spectral range. We computed the SEDs to fit the observations, using the GalaPy code and confronting the results with the CIGALE code for validation. We also employed the STARLIGHT code to analyze the stellar optical spectra of the GMCs. Results. Our results reveal significant differences between internal and external GMCs in terms of stellar and dust masses, star formation rates (SFRs), and bolometric luminosities, among others, with internal GMCs doubling maximum values of the external ones in most of the cases. We obtained tight relations between monochromatic stellar tracers and star-forming conditions obtained from panchromatic emission. We find that the best SFR tracers are radio continuum bands at 33 GHz, radio recombination lines (RRLs), and the total infrared (IR) luminosity range (LIR; 8–1000 μm) as well as the IR emission at 60 μm. The emission line diagnostics based on the BPT and WHAN diagrams suggest that the nuclear region of NGC 253 exhibits shock signatures, placing it in the composite zone typically associated with hybrids of active galactic nucleus (AGN) hosting and star-forming regions, while the AGN fraction from panchromatic emission is negligible (≤7.5%). Conclusions. Our findings demonstrate the significant heterogeneity within the CMZ of NGC 253, with central GMCs exhibiting high densities, elevated SFRs, and greater dust masses compared to their external counterparts. We confirm the effectiveness of certain centimeter photometric bands as a reliable method to estimate the global SFR, in accordance with previous studies – this time on GMC scales.